WINDHOEK – The University of Namibia’s School of Medicine and the prestigious Tufts School of Medicine in Boston, the United States of America, will collaborate under a memorandum of understanding signed recently between the two institutions.

Following the signing, Founding Dean of the Unam School of Medicine Prof Peter Nyarango, Dr Steven Y. Hong of Tufts School of Medicine and Dr James Mukamba of the World Health Organization met at Unam to identify common areas of interest as part of efforts to strengthen the capacities of the two schools.

“We are optimistic that this will strengthen our capacity to train doctors through staff exchange. Under this, the senior faculty from Tufts will come to Unam and teach students as well as provide clinical services at the teaching hospitals. Our staff will get an opportunity to go to Tufts to train in specialised areas of health care and teaching,” Nyarango said.

He added that experts from both schools would undertake collaborative research on diseases of importance for Namibia with a view to preventing them or finding cost-effective treatment. Medical students from Unam will spend up to six weeks at Tufts appreciating the practice of medicine in a developed economy and being prepared to perform such advanced treatment in Namibia.

Hong said under this collaboration that is being supported by the two schools, WHO and Namibia’s Ministry of Health and Social Services, Unam School of Medicine can immediately benefit from accessing online material, which Tufts will make available for free.

Unam will also get free copies of a world-class journal on infectious diseases.

As part of the collaboration, Tufts has deployed a fourth-year medical student, Logan Jerger, to Unam School of Medicine and the Ministry of Health and Social Services.

For the next six months, Jerger will assist in collecting information that could assist Namibia strengthen the management of HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention.

Specifically, Jerger will work with Unam medical students to gather information on the use of anti-retroviral therapy to promote adherence to treatment, amid reports of defaulting by some people.

Said Nyarango: “This is only the beginning of a long-term relationship that will, among other things, sharpen the skills of Unam staff in writing grant proposals to access international finance for research, which is expected to contribute to higher levels of staff retention and capacity building of Namibian trainees.”

The Unam School of Medicine opened this year with 54 students, most of them women.

It employs solidly educated and highly experienced medical professors and lecturers and has similar collaborations with the top-rated University of Cape Town and Stellenbosch University in South Africa and the long-standing Moi University School of Medicine in Kenya.Source: http://www.newera.com.na/article.php?articleid=14390